BLP 4249

Sam Rivers - A New Conception

Released - November 1967

Recording and Session Information

Van Gelder Studio, Englewood Cliffs, NJ, October 11, 1966
Sam Rivers, tenor, soprano sax, flute; Hal Galper, piano; Herbie Lewis, bass; Steve Ellington, drums.

1783 tk.5 I'll Never Smile Again
1784 tk.17 That's All
1785 tk.18 When I Fall In Love
1786 tk.21 What A Difference A Day Makes
1787 tk.23 Detour Ahead
1788 tk.24 Temptation
1789 tk.25 Secret Love

Session Photos

Photos: Francis Wolff

Track Listing

Side One
Title	Author	Recording Date
When I Fall In Love	Heyman-Young	October 11 1966
I’ll Never Smile Again	Ruth Lowe	October 11 1966
Detour Ahead	Ellis-Carter-Frigo	October 11 1966
That's All Time	Haymes-Brandt	October 11 1966
Side Two
What A Difference A Day Makes	Grever-Adams	October 11 1966
Temptation	Brown-Freed	October 11 1966
Secret Love	Fain-Webster	October 11 1966

Liner Notes

THERE are two dimensions of freshness of conception in this album of standards by Sam Rivers. One is the individuality of his approach to the songs themselves. The other is the fact that Rivers. who was a member of the avant-garde long before there were terms like “new jazz” and “the new thing,’ enjoys the challenge of standards notwithstanding his involvement in experimentation. “If I were to stay only within free form,” Rivers insists, “that would be as constricting as if I were to play only in traditional ways. Furthermore, when I do play standards, I respect the songs as they are. In this album, for example, I stayed with the regular changes on every tune. It’s very easy to come up with substitute chords, but it seems to me that it’s difficult for most musicians to play the regular changes and still sound fresh. But if they can’t do that, why don’t they write another tune of their own?”

Preferring, therefore, to retain the essence of each tune, Rivers’ way of introducing new conceptions is by melodic resourcefulness, diversely personal rhythmic patterns and command of variegated textures. When I Fall in Love, with Rivers on tenor, is played with passion but also with an assertive virility that provides a new perspective of the tune. I’ll Never Smile Again is one of Rivers’ older favorites. He can remember the once popularly pervasive version by Frank Sinatra and Tommy Dorsey, but Rivers chooses to be sanguine rather than wistful and his performance is an ebullient illustration—on tenor and soprano—of melodic Inventiveness and a sweeping sense of swing.

Detour Ahead is described by Rivers as “a sort of salute to Billie Holiday. I was in Miami around 1954, and Billie Holiday was working there in a club called the Sir John. I borrowed a horn to jam with the group accompanying her and my spirits, which were low at the time, were brought up by the fact that she was digging what I was playing very much. At one point I had to leave for a while, and she said, ‘Go ahead, I’ll watch it for you. I used to watch Pres’s horn.’ That made me feel good. She sang Detour Ahead that night, and it stuck with me.” On flute, soprano and tenor, Rivers reveals that his basic lyricism can also be contemplative. Note here and on the other tracks the consistently apposite, lucid accompaniment Rivers rivers from Galper, Lewis and Ellington.

“One of the pleasures of playing standards like That’s All and the others in this set,” says Rivers, “is that they can be played in so many different ways, in many different tempos. There’s no tempo of which you can say, ‘That’s the only right one for this tune.’ And so I never play any of these the same way. It depends on how I feel.” On this occasion, he felt buoyant, and the result is an airy, swift and subtle interpretation that is unlike any other I’ve heard of this standard.

While Rivers and his colleagues stayed with the regular changes on Temptation, Rivers allowed himself and the others considerable improvisatory freedom. “The soloist, when he does improvise on the changes,” says Rivers, “usually remains rhythmically, however, in a basic 4/4. I didn’t see why the soloist shouldn’t improvise rhythmically too and change the meter in each bar if he wants to. And so everyone had to listen carefully to each other and those providing accompaniment had to be ready to go in whatever direction the soloist decided to take — rhythmically, harmonically and melodically. Fortunately all these players are very flexible.” Rivers’ tone on tenor, incidentally, is one of the biggest and hottest in current jazz. And there is also unusual tonal strength and scope in his flute and soprano playing.

The final Secret Love further illustrates Rivers’ intention in this album: “I wanted to create music for comfortable listening, an album to go back to whenever you wanted that kind of warmth. The album was important to me because I do have more than one side as a musician. Sure, I like to play experimental jazz, but I also find fulfillment in this kind of approach. And eventually I want to do some rhythm and blues things. For me, it’s essential to keep flexible. And in a club, I alternate all kinds of music. That way I’m never hung up for ideas and I don’t get narrowed in conception.”

Rivers selected pianist Hal Galper for this session because “he really feels this kind of pleasant mood.” Galper, originally from Salem, Massachusetts, had been based in Boston until he decided to move to New York. He has worked often with Rivers and, among others, with Chet Baker and with the big band and small combos of Herb Pomeroy. Bassist Herb Lewis, who’s been with Cannonball Adderley and the Jazz Crusaders, is now a part of Rivers’ regular group. “I like the strength of Herb’s playing,” Rivers emphasizes. “The way jazz is today, everything centers around the bass player—because the drums aren’t playing 4/4. And without a strong bass player, the music either sounds wishy-washy or falls apart. In addition, Herb is an all-around bass player. From the most advanced jazz down to the nitty-gritty, he knows what’s going on at all levels.”

Rivers calls Steve Ellington “my favorite drummer. Rhythmically, he’s extraordinarily imaginative. And he listens. Most drummers have a bad habit of wanting to lead the group, to push things their way. Steve doesn’t. He tries to blend with the group and with each soloist.” Along with Rivers, Ellington has been heard with Chet Baker.

Rivers himself, now thirty-six, first made a substantial reputation in Boston and was also with Miles Davis for two months in 1964. Now a New Yorker, he has his own trio, takes a few students, and is doing a considerable quantity of composing and arranging. “In the writing as in the playing,” Rivers points out, “there’s a wide range oi approaches. Since I am able to produce variety, I might as well be true to myself—all parts of myself. This time I wanted to be true to that section of myself that likes relaxed music. I can play on-the-edge-of-the-chair music too, but there is a time when the player, just as the listener, simply wants to settle into a more mellow groove.”

For this listener, the strength of this album is that Sam Rivers was able to indeed retain the essence of each song and yet came through so strongly as himself that he has marked each of these standards with his own unmistakable conception — a conception that is both new and persistently stimulating.

—NAT HENTOFF

Cover Photo & Design by REID MILES
Recording by RUDY VAN GELDER